Ken Buck says in an interview with the Denver Post that he lost the U.S. Senate campaign because Republicans we not able to match the Democrats' get-out-the-vote (GOTV) ground game that allowed Sen. Michael Bennet to beat him by only 20,000 votes out of about 1.5 million cast. Buck's assertion that conservative groups were not as effective as the Democrats' is in direct contrast to Dick Wadhams' claim that the state GOP's mounted a strong GOTV campaign. Wadhams is chair of the Colorado GOP, and he's under attack because the GOP didn't win big in Colorado this year. America Votes, the Colorado Democracy Alliance (CoDA) and other left wing groups and unions mounted a huge GOTV effort during the final days of the 2010 election campaign and stopped the anti-Obama tide in its tracks in many Colorado legislative races as well as in the gubernatorial and senate contests. The Colorado Democratic Party was mostly a bystander during the campaign. The state parties' roles have been marginalized by onerous campaign finance laws that have put secretive independent groups in charge of raising money, organizing GOTV drives and winning elections. LINKS:Buck says Colorado GOP outmatched by Dems' tactics, by Michael Booth. Dick Wadhams says Michael Bennet's dishonest ads beat Ken Buck, by Donald E. L. Johnson.